Fast track to net-zero

Welcome to the net-zero city of the future. It has AI-powered grids and floating solar parks to optimize renewable energy use; vertical farming to ensure sustainable food production; carbon capture technology, eco-friendly building materials, hyper-efficient data centers and circular waste systems to minimize emissions and power consumption; and autonomous electric vehicles – supported by a network of charging infrastructure and traffic management sensors –  to glide seamlessly along our highways.

Assuming, of course, highways are still necessary in an age of telecommuting, online education, and virtual tourism.

Net-zero cities are a  triumph of digitalization and decarbonization, green innovation, and smart urban design – and the subject of this edition of Transform.

All we need now is a "moonshot mindset" to make it happen.

And there's the rub…

Because that mindset would signal a sea-change to the current approach, according to the head of the UN Climate Change Global Innovation Hub at the UNFCCC secretariat.

"I believe we will get there," Massamba Thioye told me, outside a net-zero cities forum at this year’s COP29 climate change conference in Azerbaijan.

"But it requires reinventing everything. Reinventing our industry, reinventing our economy, reinventing our society and, more importantly, reinventing ourselves."

Other guests in this edition are already well down that reinvention road: from overhauling building design and operations to selling the benefits to newly-enlightened mayors and developing toolboxes for urban mobility.

And they need to succeed. Because without net-zero cities, there can be no sustainable future: cities are responsible for about three-quarters of all greenhouse gas emissions and 70% of total energy consumption.

Tim Feng, chairman of DeepRock Group, emphasized the importance of innovative green smart campus solutions for achieving carbon neutrality in a sustainable construction industry.

Safder Nazir, SVP of Public Sector for the Middle East & Central Asia at Huawei, hailed those net-zero campuses as the ticket to "localized sustainability," and highlighted the value of "forward-looking guidelines, standards, and codes (to) ensure the desired outcomes."

Both Mohan Munasinghe, former Vice Chair of the UN IPCC and co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, and Giorgia Rambelli, Director of Mission Innovation at Urban Transitions Mission, pointed to the power of partnerships and cooperation among stakeholders in driving change.

Joe MacDonald, the founder and chief sustainability architect at Urban A&O, said capitalism might hold the key: "Big developers are the ones with the money and they will not engage an architect without a track record for sustainability."

Meanwhile, Huawei's Executive of Green Transformation, Victor Chen, said digital power and ICT enablement were adding real value to future net-zero city infrastructure construction.

As part of its efforts to enable the digitalization of cities worldwide, Huawei recently announced a new Global City Intelligent Architecture to help cities govern more efficiently and sustainably.

And it's that same technological "enablement" that sits at the heart of Huawei's wider drive to achieve sustainable prosperity through ICT and expertise.

It's encapsulated by the acronym SHARE.

S – Sustainability, the overarching outcome we seek to enable

H – Harmonious ecosystem, as we enable top tech talent

A – All-inclusive, enabling connected and accessible services for all

R – Reliable and secure, to enable trusted and high-quality communication

E – Environmental protection, to enable green energy and cost-efficient growth

The goal is a brighter, sustainable future for everyone – businesses included. As Tim Feng put it: "Carbon neutrality is not a sacrifice. It's a winning case for business… We should avoid feeling that only through sacrifice can you create something good for humanity."

And Massamba Thioye said that in turn will demand "the leadership of tomorrow: a caring leadership, a sharing leadership and a daring leadership."

In the wake of COP29, critics might add three more rhymes to that list: what's glaring is that results-free rhetoric is wearing. Now we need to see how our leaders are actually faring…